A tiny pistachio macaron of a studio apartment. Nick Olsen breaks a lot of precepts for studio decorating, deploying color on the walls, pattern everywhere and creating a lively –not just livable– space. The video shows that 300 sq ft is, indeed, tight to move in and I have a few quibbles about his choices but I think this is a lovely departure from the usual triple-white Ikea-driven rooms that are presented as good studio design. And while prices aren’t given, the look could of the room could definitely be accomplished on a small budget with a lot of thrifting and creativity.

I adore natural trees–in 2009 we had a Christmas branch with just a few ornaments and last year, we chose a small, real pine tree with paper and straw decorations but when we stumbled upon this “bangle tree” in the NYC flower district, we decided to go for major frippery. Ornaments are a combination of Ikea non-breakables, garland from Jamali Garden, Holdiday 2006 Thomas O’Brien for Target collected from eBay, and topped off with glittered bow from that most rarefied of outlets–the $.99 store.

Here’s hoping that your Thanksgiving was spent in good company and surrounded by good food. What did you do and what did you eat? Did Friday morning find you queued up in mall lines?

We didn’t find much time to photograph the scene in our home, being far too overwhelmed with chopping, searing, arranging, then eating and sighing but here are a few photos–

If you could distill the essence of the American social proposition and national ethos, you might reduce it to this: “opportunity.” The American Dream is not a hand-out; it’s the opportunity to obtain wealth and all of its’ signifiers, especially the home and the fence. Our national legend has it that this opportunity is meted out more-or-less meritocratically, that in a nation without royal tyranny, we mostly rise and fall on the basis of worth ethic, intelligence and character. This isn’t always so but true misfortune and denial of opportunity is usually a limited and personal tragedy, a rare cancer, an exception that proves the rule of American Exceptionalism.

One project that is complicating that narrative–that national insistence that as Americans we live the lives we have earned and that we are all part of the healthy middle class–has arisen as part of Occupy Wall Street: WeAreThe99Percent, a Tumblr which is giving voice and face to the 99% of Americans who are not ultra-wealthy. The stories they tell are not merely affecting but critical. Yes, critical, because whether you are Tea Party Patriot, a fiscally conservative Democrat or a Revolutionary Marxist, there is a need to bear witness, to hear each other and engage in a shared reality rather than a combative rhetoric. I do not know whether the stories below are true but they certainly ring true and they speak of home and how economically ordinary people are experiencing home in a post-prosperity America.

I’ll be revisiting this.

again, all via http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

1962, in your palm-shaded drive. I mean, can you imagine?

via Modern Art Obsession

One of the most frustrating things about rental quality housing stock is the ugly overhead lighting. Yes, I’m talking about the nipple lights and in our current apartment we were given 5 of these $16.98 visual offences:

We’re slowly changing them out. After a farcical and failed attempted installation of a simple but poorly machined West Elm fixture, I took a step back. I realized that I was forsaking quality for immediate availability and cheapness. Rather than go for something off-the-mass-shelf, I decided to look more deliberately for vintage or handmade items, which are more in line with my consumption ethos and are more unique.

So after an abundance of eBay surveillance, this is what I found for the tiny hall between our kitchen, bathroom and office:

This cast aluminum exposed bulb fixture is hardly in vogue these days but if you love deco, how can you resist the carved waves, the dramatic silhouette? The finish needs a little bit of work to fit our space, the Porcelier sockets need some touching up, and I doubt I’ll keep chrome crowned bulbs in the fixture permanently, but even as is, this makes me smile. From excellent EBay seller JNAntiquelighting for about $110, shipped.

Mr. L. and I generally agreed that if we ever installed a backsplash, it would be white subway tiles with dark grout. Safe, easy, enduring, inexpensive. It represented a decorating detante in my household, a compromise between my sometimes overly ambitious eclecticism and my husband who never met a stainless steel-clad wall he didn’t admire, whose favorite color is specifically gunmetal grey.

Life is full of surprises. On an impromptu trip to a tiny tile shop, we both became enamoured of Ming green herringbone tile. Now we are have 35 square feet of it and vague plans of splashback grandness.

I can’t photograph this tile properly but here’s my best shot. In real life, it’s paler, greener, less grey, with some yellow tones. There are specks of black, too, that are moody and fantastic. I suppose I know now why so many people went mad for granite and now why every suburban kitchen is swathed in carrara. Stone is certainly seductive–and taste-specific. It feels lithic and personal, all at once.

Dark grout, do you think?

Flaws hold a huge degree of intrigue for me. So I’ve always been curious about what happens when one pairs a deeply scarred wall with highly reflective lacquer. Almost all of the decor books and blogs argue against it, featuring endless expanses of perfectly reflective walls with nary a divet, and they might be right…

Or not.

So…Rough walls meet high shine: historic and gorgeously varied? Or just a no-no?

These days I find myself collarbone-deep in work and household projects, things that keep me away from writing here in the way I love but I have begun visual blogging on Pinterest and Flickr.

At Pinterest.com/studioist, I round up compelling images across a variety of categories from gender expression, fatshion, food to small-space living and colorful kitchens.

And on Flickr, you can see more of what is going on in our studio, especially detail shots that don’t make it to the blog.

For instance, Bertazzoni ‘baby pics’ like these:

Moodboards of new items we are collecting for the studio, like this hardware:

Ice box latch, art deco surface hinges, mid-century switchplate, art deco hook

While I love media analysis and critical commentary, right now The Studioist is going to follow more of my current interests and reflect our renovating work so this will be a more personal journey for awhile. I hope to stay true to my ethos of affordability and responsibility as I go–and I hope you come along.